What is the LHC?

Question

What is the LHC and is it dangerous?

Answer 1

the LHC is the newest, biggest, and most powerful particle accelerator ever built. it is seven times more powerful than the next largest accelerator.

it is a large ring with a 17 mile circumference. it accelerates two beams of protons in opposite directions around the ring at 99.9999% the speed of light (an energy of 7 TeV). when the two beams collide some protons will also collide. the massive amount of energy could create all new particles that we have long been searching for, like the higgs boson or supersymmetric particles.

it is not dangerous. there is no chance of it creating a black hole, strangelet, or magnetic monopole.

Answer 2

1. An international team is currently installing the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in a 27-kilometer ring buried deep below the countryside on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland. When its operations begin in 2008, the LHC will be the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. Scientists predict that its very-high-energy proton collisions will yield extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe. Beyond revealing a new world of unknown particles, the LHC experiments could explain why those particles exist and behave as they do. The LHC experiments could reveal the origins of mass, shed light on dark matter, uncover hidden symmetries of the universe, and possibly find extra dimensions of space.

Billions of protons in the LHC’s two counter-rotating particle beams will smash together at an energy of 14 trillion electron volts. After injection into the accelerator, the hair-thin proton beams will accelerate to a whisker below the speed of light. They will circulate for hours, guided around the LHC ring by thousands of powerful superconducting magnets. For most of their split-second journey around the ring, the beams travel in two separate vacuum pipes, but at four points they collide in the hearts of the main experiments, known by their acronyms: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb.

The experiments' complex detectors could see up to 600 million collisions per second, as the energy of colliding protons transforms fleetingly into a plethora of exotic particles. In the data from these ultrahigh-energy collisions scientists from universities and laboratories around the world will search for the tracks of particles whose existence would transform the human understanding of the universe we live in.

2. there are no dangers asociated with the LHC. the simple truth is, we've been performing the same type of experiments with other atomic accelorators for a couple of decades. we've been making microscopic black holes and making antimatter for a while now. we started making microscopic black holes a lot about 10 years ago, but the first one was made around the late 80's. we have made antimatter before. infact we just made some in swiss a while back. its nothing new, but it is being publicized.

did you notice that ever since the 2012 myth got started, yahoo has been posting a lot of news articles about exo planets, and "planet x", and the possibility of life on other planets, and now the particle accelorator? its all a matter to gain attention. they know there are tons of people out there who believe in this 2012 nonsense, and they are going to push it as far as they can.

the LHC is perfectly safe. it is the most powerful one ever built, but it is still extreamily safe. a routine saftey examination was performed in 2003 and tested what it is going to be doing in August, and everything turned out fine.

these microscopic black holes aren't as bad as you think. first of all, when you think of black holes you picture this black hole in the middle of space, warping the matter and light all around it. well, the truth is, it doesn't look like that. it is invisible... its dark matter. dark matter is invisible. we think of the world ending whenever someone mutters the words "black hole".

here's some prespective. if the sun were to suddenly disapear, and a black hole of the same size and mass was put in its place, we wouldn't get sucked in. we would continue our normal orbit. we would die because of no light, but the point is, the world won't get sucked into the black hole.

these microscopic black holes are smaller than a water molecule. and they almost instantly disapear after they are made. they are so small that the universe will basically fix it itself in a matter of miliseconds. they won't suck anything in. they will have the same gravitational pull as they did when they were still normal atoms.

so i hope that puts it in prespective.

and if there was a real problem, astrophysicists, such as myself, would be the first person on the plane to the LHC to stop it. but the truth is, nothing is going to happen. its going to be one of the most groundbreaking modern scientific endevors, and people should be embracing it instead of fearing it.

Answer 3

LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider. It is the newest accelerator in a line of accelerators built by CERN, and has been the center of significant controversy, specifically concerning its safety. There is somehow this idea that it will make black holes which will devour the earth and the world will die.

That will not happen. It is not dangerous. Studies have been done by several reputable and knowledgeable sources. Most stories are written by folks without the slightest clue about 1) how the black hole might even be created at all, or 2) why even if it were, it isn't nearly as dangerous as they think.

Answer 4

LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider.  I just learned about it today but its gunna make a black hole underground by spinning particles super fastt.  I dont believe it will be a real black hole because black holes are made some pretty fantastic ways, and because black holes have something called a singularity.  A singularity is the thing at the end of a black hole, no one knows really what it is but its probably pretty boss =P  But these are just mini black holes that will last like a mili second so theres nothing to worry about.

But i wouldnt really take what i said into account because im young so yeah.

Answer 5

this kind of thing has been going on since the first one in 1937...... and folks who didn't understand the science behind it then were all up in a snit, too..... and then , when we split the atom for the bomb, there were those who thought the world would end if we ever exploded one..... it would create a chain-reaction that would burn the atomosphere, set off all the earthquakes, etc......

learn more about the LHC and you'll see the beauty of it.... and find out some really cool stuff, too!!!....

Answer 6

(a) the biggest, baddest particle accelerator ever made.

(b) no. have you been watching fox news again?